Conlan resigns from the front bench

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p2008conlanBy ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Apart from embattled Chief Minister Adam Giles, Bess Price (Stuart) is the only front bencher in Central Australia after the resignation this morning from all his ministries by Matt Conlan (Greatorex, pictured).
 
Mr Conlan, who has been ordered to give explanations to the local CLP branch, which had endorsed him, appears to be signalling that he may be standing as an independent in the next general election.
 
He says he will be representing Greatorex for the CLP while “spending more time with my wife and children in the community and town of Alice Springs, a place that I love and continue to have enormous passion for.
 
“It is no secret I have a young family and it has been a difficult balancing act, weighing the demands of being a Minister with a parent to my five year old son Harvey and three year old daughter Cleo.”
 
Mr Conlan said he would not comment further. He held the portfolios of Tourism, Sport, Arts, Housing, Central Australia and more recently Transport and Infrastructure.
 
Ms Price is holding the minor portfolios of Local Government and Community Services, Women’s Policy, Men’s Policy, Parks and Wildlife and Statehood.
 
 

11 COMMENTS

  1. Bring on an election. Conlan as an independent – what? CLP or just for the electorate?
    In the meantime revert back to three year government terms. This 3rd year we are currently in has the makings of the darkest days of self government.
    If an election was due in six months from now I would expect more positive actions from both sides.

  2. Disaster looms for the conservative voter in Central Australia thanks to the Giles failed leadership experiment.
    Four of his original colleagues, Alison Anderson, Larisa Lee and now Robyn Lambley and Matt Conlan, are now either out of the party, sacked or resigned from their portfolios.
    Giles has put Alice Springs at a great risk of an ALP victory in Central Australia.
    To those who vote ALP good for you, to those who don’t and have invested their support and blood sweat and tears to have this Liberal Government elected, following a harrowing ALP term in Government, this will be the disaster relived.
    Never fear, however, I believe this danger can be averted if only strong like-minded independents unite and stand to represent each of the electorates not only in Central Australia but across the Territory and with one voice challenge the two failed choices in CLP and ALP.
    I support Robyn Lambley and feel she has been an excellent Member for Araluen. It would be a great shame if she were not able to represent her electorate at the next election.
    I have always supported Alison Anderson and Larisa Lee and will continue to support them as they have always put the people first.
    To those others in the community who have had enough of this, I ask you step forward and put your shoulder to the wheel and stand with like-minded fellow Territorians in a united and Liberal cause.
    Alice Springs and the Territory are worth the fight.

  3. If you keep doing the same thing, you will have the same result; therefore as long as people vote for the major parties, history will repeat itself over and over.
    The electorate should start thinking outside the square it has looked itself in.
    I was Green’s candidate for the last election and I witnessed first hand how parties other than the CLP and Labor were ignored in question time.

  4. Wouldn’t have anything to do with securing his vote of confidence on the floor next week in return to “magically” returned to the Tourism portfolio in the next Cabinet re-shuffle would it?
    It would only take two “cross floor” votes to secure the potential No Confidence motion. Assuming that Robyn Lambley would either abstain or vote with the Opposition and Independents, that would mean that Matt Conlan’s vote would be crucial.
    As for signalling that he might run as an Independent … I doubt that will happen. Independents have to fund their own campaigns.
    It’s all in the numbers, folks … watch this space.

  5. The Chief Minister is out of control and so his party. It’s a lot in sync with a Monty Python segment, but only it is affecting Territorians’ livelihoods and not through our bellies with laughter.
    The Chief Minister is arrogant and rude and the people will let him know when it comes election time, don’t worry about that. A one term Government coming up because of Mr Giles!

  6. I’m actually surprised at Matt’s actions. That said, I completely understand why the CLP brand is now terminal.
    Well done in having the foresight in seeing this, Matt, and putting your family and electorate first now.
    Whilst my vote has always been for CLP in the past, it won’t be whenever the election is.
    While the ideal of Labor isn’t thrilling – I’ll do it without hesitation because of my so-called member.
    Unless a decent independent comes to light?
    I have lived in the same electorate for many years. I haven’t been door knocked for nearly seven! I live in Braitling.
    While it will give me absolute pleasure to vote against Giles, I’d actually prefer to be in Robyn Lambley’s electorate to reward her decent, moralistic stand of late. Salute to you Robyn, hold you head high, woman!

  7. Sean’s comment (Posted February 10, 2015 at 8:08 pm) is very telling.
    We’ve been down this path before.
    In April 1988 the CLP Member for Flynn, Ray Hanrahan, abruptly resigned as Deputy Chief Minister and quit his ministries.
    In large part his actions were related to family difficulties. Hanrahan, who previously enjoyed a meteoric rise in his political career since being first elected in December 1983, subsequently resigned his membership of the CLP and sat as an independent while considering his future in politics.
    In mid-July 1988 (the tenth anniversary of NT Self-government) the Chief Minister Steve Hatton was suddenly deposed in a coup led by Marshall Perron. This was the latest dramatic event in a saga of CLP infighting and destabilisation since the “travel allowance scandal” that led to CM Ian Tuxworth’s resignation in May 1986.
    Hanrahan resigned from politics in August 1988, triggering a by-election for the electorate of Flynn (geographically very similar to today’s boundaries of the Araluen electorate).
    Three candidates stood for the seat – former Alderman Di Shanahan for Labor, June Tuzewski for the CLP, and popular local businessman Enzo Floreani for the NT Nationals (led by Ian Tuxworth).
    The birds very much came home to roost for the CLP. Di Shanahan topped the poll with a 20 per cent swing against the CLP (I think it still remains the record in the NT). The CLP came last and it was preferences from that party that enabled Enzo Floreani to win the seat.
    It was the shock of that loss that focussed the CLP’s efforts to achieve internal party reform over the next two years, under the party’s president Shane Stone and Chief Minister Marshall Perron. It was a huge and sustained effort.
    Nevertheless, the CLP was staring down the barrel for its first ever defeat by early 1990 and it took a number of unusual events and circumstances during the course of that year to enable the CLP to win the NT elections in October 1990.
    The circumstances afflicting the CLP now are markedly similar to those events of a quarter century ago, with the major exception there appears to be no-one within the ranks of the CLP today with the same skills as Stone and Perron to rescue that party from its woes.

  8. Interesting points Alex raises. Perhaps the most telling lesson is that Stone and Perron I believe genuinely had the interests of the Territory at the forefront.
    Giles and his merry gang of truffle hunters care only for themselves and what they can get out of us.

  9. I wasn’t impressed with Conlan who only did things he felt like doing. The electorate must come first, otherwise – GO!
    Lambley struggled with her portfolios, period. On her facebook page titled: Robyn Lambley: My Diary – she “likes” the Labor Party ahead of her own. One of her more facetious comments on this FB page is: “I just came to Darwin to drive the cost of living up and chew bubble gum. And I’m all out of bubble gum.”
    Yeah Robyn, you are all out of bubble gum – so GO!

  10. Well named, Mr or Ms Vacant. Did it ever occur to you that this FB page has been set up by someone to have a go at Robyn Lambley? Seems even satire of the most juvenile kind zooms over your head.

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